feb. term limit minutes

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1City of Houston Term Limits CommissionDraft Minutes for Meeting Held

Saturday, February 27, 201010:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.

1.Call to OrderChairman, Ambassador Arthur L. Schechter, called meeting to order at 10:35a.m.Commission Members in Attendance: Chairman, Arthur L. Schechter, Sylvia Brooks,Christina Cabral, Edward J. Cummins, Theodore L. Deaver, Thomas Jones, Jr., ToniLawrence, Dorothy Miller, Anan Qaddumi, Carroll Robinson, Jane West, Ed Wulfe, andSusan Taylor, Assistant City Attorney.

2. Approve of Minutes of Last Meeting (February 10, 2010)Carroll Robinson moved, and Theodore Deaver seconded approval of the minutesas written. Motion carried unanimously.

3. Presentations on Term Limits by Invited Speakers; Questions by CommissionersAt the close of the comments made be each invited speaker, Chairman Schechter urged them to submit their comments or a summary thereof in writing for inclusion in the written record of the Commissions proceedings. The followinginvited speakers presented their views and where appropriate the views of their respective organizations on term limits:

(a) David Robinson , President Montrose/Near Town Super Neighborhood 24 (SN24) and City of Houston Planning Commission Member No. 14 On behalf of SN 24 Mr. Robinson encouraged the Commission to lengthen the terms thatelected officials serve but stated that SN 24 decided to reserve its decision to

make a specific recommendation until it became clearer what options emerge.Mr. Robinson expressed concern that the citys current term limits adverselyimpact long term planning efforts. As an example of a long term planning

process adversely impacted by term limits, Mr. Robinson cited the need for better tracking of projects included in the citys Capitol Improvement Plan (CIP).

(b) Ada Edwards , Former District D City Council member Ms. Edwards statedher opinion that term limits of any kind adversely impact the city for multiplereasons, including especially the ability of city elected officials to work effectively with city department heads and with elected officials from other governmental entities (e.g., Harris County, the State of Texas, and the federalgovernment). Ms. Edwards stated that term limits followed the creation of citycouncil districts and that in her opinion term limits were intended to control theeffect of those districts by controlling the process by which district councilmembers are elected. In her opinion term limits require the institutional memoryregarding capitol improvements and other projects to reside in either theemployees of city departments and/or the community. Ms. Edwards stated thatthere should be a law that requires outgoing district council members to preserve

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their records for use of in-coming district council members.

Commissioner Ed Wulfe asked Ms. Edwards if in her experience, term limitsimpacts fund raising, and Ms. Edwards responded that was not so in her experience because she was not a good fund raiser.

Commissioner Thomas Jones asked Ms. Edwards if in her experience a councilmember spends his or her first year in office learning the job and the second year campaigning, and Ms. Edwards responded that was not her experience becauseshe learned how the city worked before she was elected to city council during theyears that she had worked as a community activist.

Commissioner Jane West asked Ms. Edwards if, given that she opposes termlimits of any kind and that the Commission is not empowered to recommend theabolition of term limits, she thought that the Commission should be cautiousabout supporting any changes to term limits that are not initiated by the petition

process, and Ms. Edwards stated that no existing elected official should beallowed to benefit from any suggested changes.

Jeff Mosely, President and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership (GHP),stated that the GHP has no official position on the issue of city term limits, butthat GHPs practice speaks volumes because GHP has term limits for own boardmembers, but allows term-limited board members to return to the board after sitting out for a year. Mr. Mosely stated that if the Commission so wished, hewould be pleased to ask one of the GHP committees to look at the issue.Chairman Schechter told Mr. Mosely that the Commission would be pleased tohave a GHP committee look at the issue.

Mr. Mosely stated that in his personal opinion and experience gained from havingserved as county judge in Denton County, Texas, term limits usurps the power of the voters to determine term limits at the voting booth. Mr. Mosely stated that if the city is resigned to having term limits, then he thinks that officials whorepresent the entire city (i.e., at-large council members, the controller, and themayor) should have terms that are four to six years long, while district councilmembers should have terms that are two to three years long, and that all electedofficials should be limited to two terms. Mr. Mosely compared thisrecommended difference in terms to the difference in term length that now existsfor United States Senators (6 years) and United States Representatives (2 years).

(d) Jeff Ross , Chairman of the Government Affairs Committee of the Council of Engineers, City of Houston Planning Commission Member (where he has servedas chairman of the Long Range Planning Committee), and past president of twodifferent civic clubs: Cherryhurst and South Hampton. Mr. Ross stated that theengineering industry that he represents is focused on long term planning but thatdue to term limits the citys Capitol Improvement Plan (CIP) is not a program

but, instead a bucket list, that causes city officials to focus on operational



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efforts instead of efforts to effect long range improvements. As examples of this problem, Mr. Ross identified the citys efforts to time traffic lights and fix water leaks as operational efforts, and the citys failure to implement plans for routinemaintenance and/or replacement of aged infrastructure such as water pipes as afailure to engage in long term planning efforts. As additional examples of theadverse impacts of term limits, Mr. Ross mentioned the City of Houstonsrelationship with the county commissioners courts and with the Houston-Galveston Area Council. Mr. Ross also stated that due to term limits, institutionalmemory is lost except through whatever paid staff and community groups know.As an example of the loss of institutional memory, Mr. Ross mentioned JohnVanden Bosch who served as a well respected director of the COHs PublicWorks and Engineering Dept. under Mayor Whitmire but when Mayor Brownsuggested that he be reappointed to that position approximately ten years later noone on city council knew him. Due to the power of incumbency, Mr. Ross statedthat the citys term limits allow bad officials to serve a full six years because veryfew incumbents get unelected. [Although Mr. Ross does not support the existingterm limits, he does not appear to have made a specific recommendation for change.]

(e) Jack Drake , Greater Greenspoint Management District, an entity composed of approximately 800 commercial property owners has adopted a resolutionsupporting the lengthening of limits served by all city elected officials to four instead of two years.

Mr. Drake stated that his personal opinion is in agreement with the opinionsexpressed by Jonathan Day at the Commission meeting held on February 10,2010. In support of this opinion, Mr. Drake stated that term limits cause electedofficials to undertake projects that can be completed in a short period of time and

to ignore projects that require long periods of time to complete. As examples of long term projects that have not been undertaken, Mr. Drake mentioned theabsence of a COH long range drainage program, and the citys pension plans.

Commissioner Ed Cummins asked Mr. Drake if he knew of any other citywithout term limits that handles infrastructure better than Houston, to which Mr.Drake responded he did not know of any such city.

4. Presentation on Term Limits by Members of the Public; Questions byCommissioners(a) Gloria Moreno , Precinct Chair, Second Ward and Member of the Second Ward

Super Neighborhood Council, stated that she supports term limits, although sherecognizes that whether the term limits should remain as they are is debatable.Ms. Moreno stated that if changes are made to the citys term limits, thosechanges should be voter-driven. Asserting that institutional knowledge exists



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within the city various departments, Ms. Moreno stated that she disagreed withthe speakers who contend that term limits cause the loss of institutional memory.Ms. Moreno stated that the citys lack of effective representation at the H-GAC isdue more to the fact that the big city of Houston is disliked by the smaller communities of the surrounding counties than to term limits.

(b) Susan Young , has served in many public roles including Executive Director of the Museum District and Executive Director of the South Main Coalition, butappeared before the Commission in her personal capacity. Ms. Young stated thatin her opinion term limits caused the loss of the following attributes in electedofficials: continuity, knowledge, judgment, stability, and focus. Ms. Youngstated that term limits cause elected officials to focus on searching for another jobinstead of doing the job they have, and unilaterally disarm, i.e., disadvantage, thecity when dealing with other governmental entities that do not have term limits,e.g., the county, state, and federal governments. Ms. Young also stated that termlimits cause the citys official position on initiatives that require long range

planning and commitment to flip-flop. As examples of such initiatives, Ms.Young identified, Metros transit projects, Tax Increment Reinvestment Zonefinancing, and Capitol Improvement Plan (CIP) projects.

In response to Commissioner Cummins question about another city without termlimits that does a better job on its infrastructure, Mr. Young cited Chicago,Illinois, which has rebuilt its entire lakefront in recent years and in so doing,facilitated billions of dollars of new investment.

( c) Chris Tripoli stated that he read about this meeting in the newspaper and decidedto come present his opinion. Mr. Tripoli stated that he has lived in Houston since1976, he travels frequently for business, and that he loves term limits. Mr.

Tripoli stated that although he agreed with many of the points made by AdaEdwards, he reached a different conclusion. In his opinion, public servants withidentified targets and time limits are forced to maintain focus to achieve goals.Mr. Tripoli disagreed with the speakers who said that term limits damped, i.e.,inhibit, long term strategic planning. Mr. Tripoli stated that the private sector exemplified by both for-profit and not-for-profit entities have similar challengesto those of government entities, yet people rotate on and off of their boards all thetime. Mr. Tripoli suggested that the city keep term limits but extend the periodfor which elected officials serve in order to shorten the period of time that theyneed to raise funds to run for office.

(d) Sami Hughes from the South Woods Civic Club and past president of theRiverside Civic Club stated that term limits have not worked for her or for her community because the election of new officials on a regular basis requires her community to constantly have to start over with new people who are unaware of the history and significance of on-going community projects. Accordingly, Ms.Hughes stated that she opposes term limits.



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Commissioner Jane West asked Ms. Hughes if she had a specific recommendationfor the Commission and Ms. Hughes responded that she did not.

(e) Delores Jenkins , Member of the Gulf Coast Super Neighborhood, stated that shesupports the current term limits because many people who run for office say thattheyll do one thing, and then do another once they are in office. Ms. Jenkinsstated that without term limits it is too hard to get people who arent there to dothe job out of office. Ms. Jenkins stated that the directors of city departmentsrespond to the mayor, but that most of the work is done by people who follow

procedures and maintain records. Ms. Jenkins stated that elected officials whoare unable to accomplish goals in two or three terms are unlikely to be able toaccomplish goals if given more time.

(f) Barry Klein, President of the Houston Property Rights Association, criticized theefforts of the Commission as unserious because no permanent record of thediscussion was being made. Chairman Schechter explained that the last meetingof the Commission held on February 10, 2010, had been recorded because it washeld in the city council chamber and that future meetings held there would also berecorded. He also explained that minutes were being kept of this meeting, so a

permanent record will exist. Mr. Klein stated that smaller governments are easier to monitor than larger governments, and that the Commission should reexaminethe assumption that cities need better long term planning. As an example of longterm planning thats gone awry, Mr. Klein cited the construction of light railthrough the Texas Medical Center. Mr. Klein made no specific recommendationfor action.

(g) Peter Brown , former city council member, stated that in his opinion three, two-year terms do no work because they cause city government to be reactive

instead of proactive. As examples of issues that have suffered due to termlimits, Mr. Brown cited drainage and poverty. Asserting that capitol projectstypically take six to ten years to complete, Mr. Brown stated that the city of Denver, Colorado allows it elected officials to serve three, four-year terms.Citing the dangerous dog ordinance that took Council Member Toni Lawrencetwo years to complete, Mr. Brown stated that Mayor White refused to undertake

projects that he did not believe could be accomplished within the time he had toserve as mayor. Mr. Brown urged the Commission to recommend revising termlimits to allow for at least two, four-year terms, and to make whatever decision itdecided to make based on its determination of best practices. Mr. Brown alsourged the Commission to recommend revising the language of the current termlimit ordinance that prohibits elected officials from filing to run for a third term if they have already served two complete terms. This provision forced him toresign from his seat on December 29, 2009, days before completing his secondterm in office so that he would remain eligible to run for a third term sometime inthe future.

(h) Debbie Allen , Pleasantville Strategic Planning Revitalization Committee, yielded



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her time due to the lateness of the hour.

5. DiscussionDiscussion occurred during consideration of the following agenda item.

6. Updates/Reports on Research Project and Other Matters Discussed at Last MeetingRenee Cross, Associate Director of the University of Houstons Center for Public Policy,

presented the attached schedule for completion of research approved at the last meeting.Chairman Schechter proposed, and the Commissioners agreed, that the research related tocities other than Houston should be limited to cities with populations of one million or more, and that, if possible, the report to be delivered on April 15 th should include anassessment of how other cities handle long range projects.

7. Scheduling/Next StepsSubject to the availability of meeting space, future meetings of the Commission will beheld downtown in City Hall or in the City Hall Annex as follows:

Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 3:00 p.m. or Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 3:00 p.m.

8. Adjourn: 12:45 p.m.


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